Water repellency, or hydrophobicity, of materials is of great importance in myriad applications from aesthetic to industrial uses. For example, increased hydrophobicity is often desirable in surfaces subject to ice/snow accumulation or exposure to water. In yet other instances lipophobicity (lipid repellency) and/or amphiphobicity (repellency of both water and lipids) are also of use (e.g., in transport or storage of lipid based fluids, etc.). Numerous studies trying to achieve such liquidphobicities (e.g., hydrophobicity, lipophobicity, amphiphobicity, etc.) have focused upon use of various coatings or surface texture modifications. For example, hydrocarbon and fluorine containing compounds and waxes have traditionally been used to increase liquidphobicity of materials. Recently, other approaches have used roughening of surfaces to achieve some types, or some degree, of liquidphobicity.
Alternative to, or in addition to, liquidphobicity, some situations require super-liquidphobicity (e.g., super-hydrophobicity). Again, as with liquidphobicity, typical previous work has focused on liquidphobic coatings (e.g., those containing silane, etc.) and surface texture modification.
Parallel to the increasing desire for liquidphobic materials has been an increased focus on design and use of nanostructures (e.g., carbon nanotubes, nanowires, nanorods, quantum dots, etc.). A great deal of attention has arisen over novel properties expressed by nanostructures in, e.g., electrical, mechanical, and chemical applications. See, e.g., Yang, et al. (2002) Intl. J. Nanoscience, 1(1):1-39.
A welcome addition to the art would be a surface or surface layer which can be tailored to various degrees and types of super-liquidphobicity, which optionally could be transferred to secondary surfaces of many different structures, etc., which could be used in a variety of settings/situations, and which would also include the desirable properties of nanostructures. The current invention presents these and yet other novel benefits which will be apparent upon examination of the following.